We are at the final of the Vuelta and a more fitting final couldn’t have been asked. The Alto de L’ Angliru. The stage winner today will have a legendary status for the rest of his life as the climb was only used 5 times before and previous winners are Juan José Cobo (’11), Alberto Contador (’08), Roberto Heras (’02), Gilberto Simoni (’00) and José María Jiménez (’99). Together they have 12 GT victories, only Jiménez doesn’t have a GT victory but 4 KOM jerseys.




Even though the stage is likely to be won by the best riders in the peloton it didn’t discourage riders from making the breakaway. Martínez (Euskaltel), Sutherland (Saxo Bank), Casar (FDJ), Silin (Astana) and García (Caja Rural) took their chance.


the breakaway

the rain has come down on the riders made a difficult day even more difficult. This was tough for the riders as a lot of riders crashed or had mechanical. Iriziar (RLT), Izagirre (EUS), Morabito (BMC), Curvers, De Backer and Preidler (ARG) Graziato (LAM), Roche (TST), Inxausti (MOV), Riblon (ALM), Vlesaco (CJR), Bobridge (BEL), Hansen (LTB) were all involved in crashes and Le Bon (FDJ), Tiralongo (AST), Hansen (LTB) had a flat tire. Adam Blythe was forced to retire.


an abandon early today

While the breakaway started the Alto del Cordal, the climb preceding the Angliru. they had a gap of 13’46� to the peloton. Perhaps they are able to make it last until the finish. Either way, the GC riders need to start early today to win the stage. They were started by Rodríguez like usual.


Rodriguez is early at it again

Froome, Valverde, Martin, König, Horner and Uran are the first rider that is in his Rodriguez wheel.


Van den Broeck, Roche, Majka and Ghita also follow and are just behind the group infront

In the breakaway, Silin and Sutherland have started the Angliru and left their companions behind. With just 10 km to go and a advantage of 11 minutes. The victory is sure to beat between the two. Meanwhile in the Peloton, Urán, Froome, Valverde and Martin are chasing with Rodríguez. Horner is closest to the five as he’s 30 seconds behind. Van den Broeck, Ghita, König, Majka and Roche are an additional 36 seconds behind the group Froome.


Verdugo is pulling Sánchez and the peloton that’s 1’24� behind Group König

RODRIGUEZ HAS A FLAT TIRE IT SEEMS!


Group König waste no time on passing Rodriguez

IT’S WORSE THEN A FLAT TYRE, JOAQUIM RODRIGUEZ HAS TO ABANDON TODAY!


one of the first groupetto’s passed Rodriguez

With Rodriguez out of the picture, Moreno needs to step up to save the Katusha’s Vuelta. Nerz responded to this. The group König is within sight.


perhaps too late to save Katusha’s Vuelta

After Rodríguez abandon attacks came from all over the place. Van den Broeck has jumped away from group König while Moreno, Sánchez, Nerz, Fuglsang, Caruso, Hintermuller, Herrada, Ten Dam, Inxausti, Weening, Cobo are away from what we now call the peloton



The GC riders have now started the section that goes go below the 10% and we see that Martin isn’t climber enough to hang on to Urán, Froome and Valverde.


Horner still in pursuit.

Rodriguez officially abandons, along with Docker (Orica)



Silin doesn’t trust his sprint against Sutherland and tries to breakaway.



Valverde also isn’t climber enough to follow to mighty Sky train. Urán and Froome pace is unrivaled this Vuelta. Horner has meanwhile caught with Martin.



The snow has come falling down and the Sky train keeps riding up the mountain but it’s Silin that takes the victory on the Angliru. he was right to breakaway. Sutherland, García, Casar and Martínez make up the top 5 on the stage



Froome has thanked Urán for proven services and he’s trying to prove his dominance over the Vuelta. Valverde will move up to 2nd and he’s trying to put the Spaniard on over 10 minutes.



Froome finishes 6th and GPS measures that Valverde is 2 minutes behind. Urán finishes 7th. He won’t make 2nd place though as his gap to Valverde is almost 5 minutes. Valverde finishes 8th and will be put at 10 minutes back. Horner and Martin make up the top 10.


the rest of the top 10

Van den Broeck, Ghita, König almost finish together Ghita might move into the top 10 now that Rodríguez abandon. Roche, Majka and Moreno finish together


just outside of the top 10

Ten Dam makes an effort to finish infront of the first big group that finishes today, beating Caruso, Sánchez, Hintermuller, Nerz, Fuglsang and Weening



Thanks to Rodriguez abandoning during the stage everbody moves up one place in the GC. Valverde, Urán, Horner, Martin, König move up on place, meaning that they will finish 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6th. Van den Broeck goes over Sánchez and is 7th while Sánchez stays at 8th. Fuglsang drops out of the top 10 and is now 11th. Roche and Ghita take the places of Fuglsang and Rodriguez. Velasco was also outside the time limit.


what’s good comes in two

Rank	Name	Team	Time
1	Egor Silin	Astana Pro Team	4h03'18
2	Rory Sutherland	Team Saxo - Tinkoff	+ 49
3	Marcos García	Caja Rural - Seguros RGA	+ 1'17
4	Sandy Casar	FDJ.fr	+ 2'05
5	Egoi Martínez	Euskaltel - Euskadi	+ 2'31
6	Chris Froome	Sky Procycling	+ 3'27
7	Rigoberto Urán	Sky Procycling	+ 4'21
8	Alejandro Valverde	Movistar Team	+ 5'12
9	Chris Horner	RadioShack - Leopard	+ 6'13
10	Daniel Martin	Garmin - Sharp	+ 6'31
11	Jurgen Van den Broeck	Lotto Belisol	+ 8'14
12	Oreste Ghita	Team Argos - Shimano	+ 8'23
13	Leopold König	Team NetApp - Endura	+ 8'42
14	Nicolas Roche	Team Saxo - Tinkoff	+ 9'31
15	Rafal Majka	Team Saxo - Tinkoff	s.t.

Rank	Name	Team	Time
1	Chris Froome	Sky Procycling	80h16'16
2	Alejandro Valverde	Movistar Team	+ 10'07
3	Rigoberto Urán	Sky Procycling	+ 14'01
4	Chris Horner	RadioShack - Leopard	+ 16'46
5	Daniel Martin	Garmin - Sharp	+ 22'54
6	Leopold König	Team NetApp - Endura	+ 30'48
7	Jurgen Van den Broeck	Lotto Belisol	+ 32'46
8	Samuel Sánchez	Euskaltel - Euskadi	+ 34'13
9	Nicolas Roche	Team Saxo - Tinkoff	+ 36'18
10	Oreste Ghita	Team Argos - Shimano	+ 36'56

Rank	Name	Team	Points	General
1	Alejandro Valverde	Movistar Team	8	179
2	Chris Froome	Sky Procycling	10	162
3	Rigoberto Urán	Sky Procycling	9	129
4	Daniel Martin	Garmin - Sharp	6	94
5	Gerald Ciolek	MTN - Qhubeka	0	84

Rank	Name	Team	Mountain	General
1	Egor Silin	Astana Pro Team	31	51
2	Maxime Bouet	AG2R La Mondiale	0	38
3	Ion Izagirre	Euskaltel - Euskadi	0	37
4	Sandy Casar	FDJ.fr	11	25
5	Ivan Santaromita	BMC Racing Team	0	24

Rank	Team	Time	General Time
1	Team Saxo - Tinkoff	12h29'45	+ 1h11'35 (8)
2	Sky Procycling	+ 1'26	240h52'56 (1)
3	Euskaltel - Euskadi	+ 7'20	+ 31'00 (3)
4	FDJ.fr	+ 9'57	+ 2h16'53 (12)
5	Movistar Team	+ 10'29	+ 30'54 (2)

Rank	Name	Team	Time	General Time
1	Egor Silin	Astana Pro Team	+ 4h03'18	+ 24'54 (4)
2	Oreste Ghita	Team Argos - Shimano	+ 4h11'41	80h53'12 (1)
3	Rafal Majka	Team Saxo - Tinkoff	+ 4h12'49	+ 4'40 (2)
4	Josef Hintermuller	MTN - Qhubeka	+ 4h14'01	+ 17'05 (3)
5	Dominik Nerz	BMC Racing Team	s.t.	+ 29'48 (5)